Simon Ubsdell
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COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Well it looks as though Apple have sneaked in a new Motion filter (in Motion 5.0.5) called Strobe which does the job you’re wanting it to do just fine!
Here it is published:
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Jonathan White] “Thanks for that, I haven’t had a chance to try it but I’m not sure it’s what I want, basically I have some footage that I need to make staccato (like old movie footage….)..will this do the job? “
Not sure what you mean by staccato – presumably you are wanting held frames in the manner of an AVID strobe?
If so this effect is not for you – though it is a strobe effect in the strict definition.
I would think that the “held frame” strobe effect would be extremely difficult if not impossible to achieve using Motion, as it just doesn’t enable you to send time-based effect through to FCP X. I hope this might change in future but it does seem to be a frustrating limitation at this point in time.
Edit:
Having said that, you’ve got me thinking and I think I can see a way of making this happen using the same technique as for the effect above.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Jonathan White] “Can’t seem to work out a way to do this…. the BG Just strobe it plugin doesn’t seem to work in 10.06….. can’t seem to make my own strobe generator in motion… is the only way really to export to motion and do it there? strobe seems like a basic enough effect..”
Here’s a new strobe effect that does work in 10.0.6:
You can choose 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 frame strobe timing via a pop-up menu.
The default is for the video to turn off so that it shows through to the layer beneath which is what you want to use if you want to cross-cut with another image.
There is also an option to select a background color in which case this will be what you see when the video turns off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CmTP9bkEHI
As a general note about this effect, it does appear that the only way to achieve a completely reliable result is to use keyframing in Motion, rather than the obvious choice of using an Oscillate behavior on the opacity which is what Brendan used in his original Generator version of this effect to which I think you are referring. Unfortunately this just doesn’t work because as Apple do mention in the manual, time-based behaviors are not in principle supported.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
You need to use the Custom option from the Speed menu of the Motion Path behavior – and set keyframes for it.
Go to the frame(s) where you want the movement to pause and set a keyframe. Then go to the frame where you want it to start again and make another keyframe with the same value as the previous one.
Make sure the keyframe interpolation of the first keyframe is set to linear so there is no movement between the two keyframes. You will need to set this in the Keyframe editor – right click on the first keyframe and select Linear from the Interpolation options. You can always change the curve of the incoming and outgoing sections if you don’t want a sudden start/stop.
Note that you can’t use the Constant interpolation option for this as although you can get it to stop dead, when the animation resumes it will jump to where it would have been if there had been no stop.
Hope that makes sense.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
Thanks for clarifying.
[Oliver Peters] “X2Pro didn’t work for my workflow, but my testing was limited to the beta. It seemed to work OK for the things it could do, but that didn’t properly fit my needs.
My files are generally QT media with embedded sync audio, plus AIFFs for music, VO, SFX, etc. My Pro Tools mixer wanted AAF files with linked, trimmed (not embedded media). Some of their process worked for embedded files. Some worked best for double-system sound with audio as WAV files. So it’s not that it didn’t work, but rather couldn’t do what I needed.”
I’ve generally found the latest version (or rather the latest beta of the latest version) did everything I wanted but I maybe need to run a few more tests from what you’re saying. Unlike you, I was finding it a lot more reliable than the Xto7 route which I have also used but never with 100% success and frequently disastrous (as in effectively unusable) consequences.
I think it’s fair to say that there still isn’t a wholly reliable workflow despite the best efforts of these two third parties over more than a year.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Oliver Peters] “I have found X2Pro to be problematic for my workflows. I use Xto7 to send the sequence to FCP 7 and then generate an OMF for my favorite ProTools folks. Most of the time this works. Sometimes I’ve found Xto7 has trouble with the FCP X XMLs specifically related to audio.”
Hi Oliver
Could you explain what issues you have had with X2Pro?
When using Xto7 for this workflow as you suggest I have had quite a few problems not least of which is that the XML generated by FCP X is itself defective (incomplete, scrambled, etc.) in ways that are unpredictable, to me at least. (This same issue has obviously given me problems with X2Pro.) Have you found this to be the case at all?
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Tony Brittan] “So…is this one that I’d want to keep along with the other one you posted? Or would it replace it? I tried the other one out and it works well. I did seem to notice that, while it does the “zoom in” portion fine, the zoom out part almost seemed like it didn’t work…as if the zoom in happened, then it snapped to the next clip without zooming out. Might’ve been the footage I was working with.
If this is the same but better, I’ll delete the other one and try with this one :-)”
Yes, I was trying to be too clever (and too lazy) with the other one and as you noticed the animation curve leaves a lot to be desired. This new one replaces it and does a much better job, and you also have a far bigger scaling factor to play with.
Throw the old one in the bin!
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
I don’t this is of interest to anyone but here’s a new improved version of my take on this (better design idea internally that makes for a better overall result):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcojolVHplU&feature=plcp
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Tony Brittan] “Figured I’d hear from you Simon 😉 You’ve done a great service by providing your stuff here. Have an awesome weekend!”
A pleasure to help! Have a superlative weekend yourself.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
Hi Tony
Here’s a version that might be useful to you in addition to what Loren has done.
You’ve got an onscreen control for the centre point, plus you can control the zoom factor (the amount of zoom) and the zoom motion blur (not a real motion blur as it’s a bit slow to process and this works fine). And the centre of the zoom blur follows the anchor point which is handy.
I’ve made the zoom Exponential in and Logarithmic out to get what I think is the right degree of “punch” but you might not like that …
Anyway, no keyframing necessary so it should be easy to use.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com
